Fatigue is commonly reported in many neurologic illnesses, including multiple sclerosis, Parkinson disease, myasthenia gravis, traumatic brain injury, and stroke. Fatigue contributes substantially to decrements in quality of life and disability in these illnesses. Despite the clear impact of fatigue as a disabling symptom, our understanding of fatigue pathophysiology is ...

Gelfman Laura P LP National Palliative Care Research Center and Hertzberg Palliative Care Institute of Brookdale Department of Geriatrics, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York 10029, USA. - - 2013

Palliative care clinical and educational programs are expanding to meet the needs of seriously ill patients and their families. Multiple reports call for an enhanced palliative care evidence base. To examine current National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding of palliative medicine research and changes since our 2008 report. We sought ...

Autophagy and autophagy-related processes are fundamentally important in human health and disease. These processes are viewed primarily as cellular degradative pathways that recycle macromolecules and dysfunctional or redundant organelles into amino acids, sugars and lipids, especially during starvation. However, the ubiquitin-like autophagy proteins and other components of the autophagic machinery ...

Cortical networks display persistent activity in the form of periods of sustained synchronous depolarizations ('UP states') punctuated by periods of relative hyperpolarization ('DOWN states'), which together form the slow oscillation. UP states are known to be synaptically generated and are sustained by a dynamic balance of excitation and inhibition, with ...

Velaglucerase alfa is a glucocerebrosidase produced by gene activation technology in a human fibroblast cell line (HT-1080), and it is indicated as an enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) for the treatment of Gaucher disease type 1 (GD1). This multicenter, open-label, 12-month study examined the safety and efficacy of velaglucerase alfa in ...

Lysosomal β-galactosidase (β-Gal) deficiency causes a group of disorders that include neuronopathic GM1 gangliosidosis and non-neuronopathic Morquio B disease. We have previously proposed the use of small molecule ligands of β-Gal as pharmacological chaperones (PCs) for the treatment of GM1 gangliosidosis brain pathology. Although it is still under development, PC ...

The molecular mechanisms regulating tissue size represent an unsolved puzzle in developmental biology. One signalling pathway controlling growth of the Drosophila wing is Dpp. Dpp promotes growth by repression of the transcription factor Brk. The transcriptional targets of Brk that control cell growth and proliferation, however, are not yet fully ...

A novel aldo-keto reductase gene, Tm1743, from Thermotoga maritima was overexpressed in Escherichia coli. The enzyme displayed the highest activity at 90 °C and at pH 9. It retained 63 % of its activity after 15 h at 85 °C. The enzyme also could tolerate (up to 10 % v/v) ...

The extent of metabolism of [D10]phenanthrene to [D(10)]r-1,t-2,3,c-4-tetrahydroxy-1,2,3,4-tetradeuterophenanthrene ([D10]PheT) could be a biomarker of human metabolic activation of carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, leading to identification of smokers particularly susceptible to lung cancer. The longitudinal stability of [D10]PheT was evaluated in 24 cigaret smokers given 7-8 oral doses of [D10]phenanthrene (10 ...

Microtubule-associated protein 1B (MAP1B) is a classical high molecular mass microtubule-associated protein expressed at high levels in the brain. It confers specific properties to neuronal microtubules and is essential for neuronal differentiation, brain development and synapse maturation. Misexpression of the protein contributes to the development of brain disorders in humans. ...

Despite several modifications and the wide use of the monetary incentive delay paradigm (MID; Knutson et al. in J Neurosci 21(16):RC159, 2001a) for assessing reward processing, evidence concerning its application in children is scarce. A first child-friendly MID modification has been introduced by Gotlib et al. (Arch Gen Psychiatry 67(4): ...

Zhou Jing J Department of Physiology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore, Singapore - - 2013

Lysosome is a key subcellular organelle in the execution of the autophagic process and at present little is known whether lysosomal function is controlled in the process of autophagy. In this study, we first found that suppression of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) activity by starvation or two mTOR catalytic ...

Although recent clinical trials have demonstrated the increasing promise of gene therapy, they have also illustrated the difficulties of assessing risks, given the inherent uncertainty of trial outcomes. An international survey was conducted to investigate gene therapy researchers' perceptions and assessments of risks in clinical trials. Data from respondents (n ...

Protein homeostasis in higher eukaryotes is balanced by a dynamic network of adaptive mechanisms, including the unfolded protein response (UPR) and autophagy. In a paper recently published in Cell Research, Zhu and co-workers uncover a novel biological function of the unspliced form of the UPR transcription factor XBP1 in the ...

Vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) is an oncolytic virus which selectively infects and kills cancer cells. The goal of the present study was to determine whether VSV is capable of targeting metastatic lesions that arise in situ in the transgenic adenocarcinoma of the mouse prostate (TRAMP) model. The interferon (IFN)-responsive luciferase ...

Adult stem cells from the dermis would be an attractive cell source for therapeutic purposes as well as studying the process of skin aging. Several studies have reported that human dermal stem/progenitor cells (hDSPCs) with multipotent properties exist within the dermis of adult human skin. However, these cells have not ...

N-methyl-D-aspartate glutamate receptor (NMDA-R) antagonists produce schizophrenia-like positive and negative symptoms in healthy human subjects. Preclinical research suggests that NMDA-R antagonists interfere with the function of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) neurons and alter the brain oscillations. These changes have been hypothesized to contribute to psychosis. In this investigation, we evaluated the ...

Stem cells (SC) are able to self-renew and to differentiate into many types of committed cells, making SCs interesting for cellular therapy. However, the pool of SCs in vivo and in vitro consists of a mix of cells at several stages of differentiation, making it difficult to obtain a homogeneous ...

Many studies regarding spinal sagittal alignment were focused mainly on above-hip structures, not considering the knee joint. Knee-spine syndrome was proposed earlier, but the mechanism of this phenomenon has not been revealed. The aim of the study was to demonstrate how spinopelvic alignment and sagittal balance change in response to ...

Self-exclusion programs are required to be provided by gambling operators in many international jurisdictions in an attempt to provide an option for those who have gambling problems to avoid further gambling. However, minimal robust and comprehensive research has been conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of self-exclusion programs. There is much ...

Metalloestrogens are metals that activate the estrogen receptor in the absence of estradiol. The metalloestrogens fall into two subclasses: metal/metalloid anions and bivalent cationic metals. The metal/metalloid anions include compounds such as arsenite, nitrite, selenite, and vanadate while the bivalent cations include metals such as cadmium, calcium, cobalt, copper, nickel, ...

Metal contamination was investigated in soils of the Vallecamonica, an area in the northern part of the Brescia province (Italy), where ferroalloy industries were active for a century until 2001. The extent in which emissions from ferroalloy plants affected metal concentration in soils is not known in this area. In ...

Competition between microbial species is a product of, yet can lead to a reduction in, the microbial diversity of specific habitats. Microbial habitats can resemble ecological battlefields where microbial cells struggle to dominate and/or annihilate each other and we explore the hypothesis that (like plant weeds) some microbes are genetically ...

To evaluate the effects the administration of myo-inositol (MYO) on hormonal parameters in a group of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) patients. Controlled clinical study. PCOS patients in a clinical research environment. 50 overweight PCOS patients were enrolled after informed consent. All patients underwent hormonal evaluations and an oral glucose tolerance ...

This study investigated the feasibility of the cervical vestibular-evoked myogenic potential (cVEMP) test using bone-conducted vibration (BCV) tapping. Prospective study. Initially, 20 healthy volunteers aged 23-38 years underwent cVEMP tests in supine position using head elevation method by BCV tapping at the Fz and inion. On another day, the same ...

The G72/G30 gene complex is a candidate gene for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. However, G72 and G30 mRNAs are expressed at very low levels in human brain, with only rare splicing forms observed. We report here G72/G30 expression profiles and behavioral changes in a G72/G30 transgenic mouse model. A human ...

Autism is a complex neuropsychiatric syndrome with a largely unknown etiology. Inflammation during pregnancy may represent a common pathway by which infections and other insults increase risk for the disorder. Hence, we investigated the association between early gestational C-reactive protein (CRP), an established inflammatory biomarker, prospectively assayed in maternal sera, ...

Psychiatric comorbidity is common in Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC). Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)-related surgery or hospitalizations represent major events in the natural history of the disease. The objective of this study is to examine whether there is a difference in the risk of psychiatric comorbidity following surgery ...

Following kidney injury, repair can result in functional tissue becoming a patch of cells and disorganized extracellular matrix--a scar--or it can recapitulate the original tissue architecture through the process of regeneration. Regeneration can potentially occur in all animal species and humans. Indeed, the repair of portions of the existing nephron ...

Haem (iron protoporphyrin IX) is both an essential growth factor and a virulence regulator of the periodontal pathogens Porphyromonas gingivalis and Prevotella intermedia, which acquire it through the proteolytic degradation of haemoglobin and other haem-carrying plasma proteins. The haem-binding lipoprotein HmuY haemophore and the gingipain proteases of P. gingivalis form ...

Lorduy Kara M KM Department of Psychology, College of Science, The University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, Texas, - - 2013

Symptoms of central sensitization syndrome (CSS) were evaluated among three different groups of temporomandibular disorder (TMD) patients. Additionally, TMD group differences in pain and pain-related disability were assessed, as well as emotional distress. Participants were 250 patients with symptoms of acute TMD, recruited from dental clinics within a major metropolitan ...

In the treatment of melanoma, inguinal lymph node dissection (ILND) is the standard of care for palpable or biopsy-proven lymph node metastases. Wound complications occur frequently after ILND. In the current study, the multicenter American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP) was utilized to examine the ...

Protein kinetic destabilization is a common feature to many human genetic diseases. Human phosphoglycerate kinase 1 (PGK1) deficiency is a rare genetic disease caused by mutations in the PGK1 protein, which often shows reduced kinetic stability. In this work, we have performed an in-depth characterization of the thermal stability of ...

Lin28 (also termed Lin28a) and Lin28b are related RNA-binding proteins, involved in the control of microRNA synthesis, especially of the let-7 family, with putative functions in early (embryo) development. However, their roles during postnatal maturation remain ill defined. Despite the general assumption that Lin28 and Lin28b share similar targets and ...

Deregulated transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) signaling in pancreatic cancer promotes tumor growth, invasion, metastasis, and a potent immunosuppressive network. A strategy for disrupting this tumor-promoting pathway is silencing TGF-β by small interfering RNA (siRNA). By introducing a triphosphate group at the 5' end of siRNA (ppp-siRNA) gene silencing can be ...

Time resolved confocal microscopy has been applied to study the cytoplasm and nucleus region of a single live Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell. To select the cytoplasm and the nucleus region, two different fluorescent probes are used. A hydrophobic fluorescent dye, DCM localizes preferentially in the cytoplasm region of a ...

Objective: To present a case of Paget's disease of bone unmasked after vascular reperfusion.Methods: In this case study, we review the presentation, evaluation, diagnosis, and management of a patient with Paget's disease and peripheral vascular diseaseResults: A 79-year-old-woman with a history of coronary artery heart disease and recent finding of ...

BACKGROUND:Early neonatal mortality has remained high and unchanged for many years in Tanzania, a resource-limited country. Helping Babies Breathe (HBB), a novel educational program using basic interventions to enhance delivery room stabilization/resuscitation, has been developed to reduce the number of these deaths.METHODS:Master trainers from the 3 major referral hospitals, 4 ...

Preeclampsia is a pregnancy specific disorder and a risk factor for later cardiovascular disease. The cause and detailed pathophysiology remains unknown. G protein signaling is involved in a variety of physiological processes, including blood pressure regulation. We assessed whether distributions of 3 single nucleotide polymorphisms in genes coding for components ...

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to map pre-procedural variables for insertion of a central venous catheter, prophylactic blood component use and to investigate whether any independent variable could be identified as an independent risk factor for associated bleeding complications in patients outside the intensive care unit. METHODS: In ...

In laparoscopic colorectal resection, the medial-to-lateral approach has been largely adopted. This approach can be initiated by the division of either the inferior mesenteric artery (IMA) or the inferior mesenteric vein (IMV). This cadaveric study aimed to establish the feasibility of IMV dissection as the initial landmark of medial-to-lateral left ...

ABSTRACT: Background; Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) were recently recognized as a method to promote neuroplastic effects in motor rehabilitation. The core of a BCI is a decoding stage by which signals from the brain are classified into different brain-states. The goal of this paper was to test the feasibility of a ...

BACKGROUND: Comparing and ranking hospitals based on health outcomes is becoming increasingly popular, although case-mix differences between hospitals and random variation are known to distort interpretation. The aim of this study was to explore whether surgical-site infection (SSI) rates are suitable for comparing hospitals, taking into account case-mix differences and ...

This work describes an integrated approach for designing on demand Self-Assembled Monolayers (SAMs) on silicon oxides and particularly glass substrates for cell biology applications. Starting from commercially available compounds, the strategy relies on thiol-ene reaction and provides high quality SAMs exhibiting adhesive and anti-adhesive patterns.